Capernaum Movie Review

This is a review of the movie Caphernaum.  I also want to compare it with a 2005 Lebanese movie called Zozo which based on a slightly similar theme. The name of the movie, Caphernaum, is taken from the name of a village in Israel where Jesus is said to have performed most of his miracles. The word Caphernaum simply translated means Naum’s Village (Caphar = Village, Naum= Noam). However the village was forgotten and when it was discovered many years later, it was in an absolute state of ruin. Now this movie made by Lebanese director Nadine Labaki alludes to this new meaning of the word Caphernaum, it means when things fall into such a state of disrepair and wretchedness that they can never go back to their earlier state.

The movie is set in present day Lebanon where a twelve year old boy, who has lived in a life of poverty sues his parents for having many kids and failing to love them like they deserve. The child who plays Zain has faced similar struggles in real life, and boy does it show in his work! You have to wonder if this twelve year old is acting or merely reliving his experience. Zain Al Rafea manages to become a child a moment and in the next moment he can be seen struggling with issues of adulthood. His puberty and change in emotions are merely an addition to the other frustrations of life. Despite this depressing sounding ambience, the movie doesn’t become pessimistic as Zain’s constant struggle with whatever life throws at him keeps us hooked to the plot.

Although Zain seems unattached to most of his family, he is attached to his sister, Sahar. And the only thing that Zain knows is that his sister’s menstruation could get her married to a much older man and Zain’s solution to this problem is to ask his sister to keep it hidden.

Overall, Zain’s life is full of struggles for the basics such as food, clothing and shelter. So it is amazing that what he craves for most is love and attention. His want for a parent is so strong that if he doesn’t have a caring parent, he himself becomes a parent to a little baby whose Ethiopian mother, Rahil, has gone missing.

(To people who have said that Zain is too young to have used all the abusive, swear words in the movie, take a walk in your poor neighbourhood and discover the language.)

RIP Aamir Malik from Khamosh Pani

No matter how much we think we have been surprised, the world never fails to surprise us more. So I learnt about this sad news that the talented actor Aamir Malik from the movie, Khamosh Pani, has passed away. The actor had been homeless for a long time and had been facing issues of drug addiction. This happened way back in January this year but was revealed only now. He passed away in his hometown Quetta in Pakistan.

Aamir Malik had received much acclaim for his role as Saleem, in Khamosh Pani, a movie which had  received several awards at the Locarno Film Festival including Best Film. The movie was directed by Sabiha Sumar who has directed many award winning documentaries on various issues.

He was clearly a talent that had gotten attention from some big names of the film fraternity. He was supposed to play the role of Bhagat Singh in the blockbuster Bollywood movie Rang De Basanti. But apparently Malik never showed up. The affable actor was of the opinion that Indian actors should become a part of Pakistani films. Incidentally, Kirron Kher and Shilpa Shukla were two Indian actors in a Pakistani film.

This out of the box after a long time.

 

The movie Khamosh Pani was banned in Pakistan at least for some time as it was a story centered on the Partition of India and the regime of Zia Ul Haq.  Malik had played the role of a troubled teenager who is caught temporarily in a crisis of faith and lets his passion of youth override emotions. He abandons the gentle habit of playing the flute and joins a political group. Despite years of independence from colonisation, India and Pakistan have been unable to stop falling into the shackles of their own past and are constantly taken advantage of by politicians, making a farce out of democracy. Had this self reflecting, painful narrative created some sort of a trouble for the actor?

This is surprising for so many reasons. How is it possible for a popular actor to go missing in this age of continuous media attention? And what I know of Pakistani culture, which is so alike the Indian culture, is the stronghold of family on an individual, no matter how famous. Although the movie was shot way back in 2003, still it had given Malik international fame and popularity. And when even the most common amongst us have a tough time staying away from the number of electronic sources which keep us connected, how did Aamir escape everyone’s attention?

There is not much in the news about him except this report in the Pakistani newspaper Tribune. According to the report from this source his issues were going on for too long. His co-star from Khamosh Pani, Shilpa Shukla, who was Malik’s friend, said he had begun to avoid human company right after the success of the movie and seems like he was suffering from depression. He even refused help from those who wanted to admit him into a rehabilitation facility. It was said during last few months of his life, Malik would entertain common people on the streets of Karachi with verses from Shakespeare, Ghalib and many other poets while he himself surrendered to a life of anonymity.

Onibaba Movie Review

Two days ago, on April 22nd was Japanese director Kaneto Shindo’s birthday. The first movie I had seen of the director was The Children of Hiroshima, which is entirely different from Onibaba and is more direct and realistic about the sufferings at Nagasaki and Hiroshima perhaps because it was made in 1952 very close to the tragedy. Instead Onibaba although about modern events sits on the framework of the past.

 I had seen the movie, Onibaba, referenced here and there and was curious about it. Since horror is really not my genre I had been hesitant in the past (because I am a scarredy-cat that’s why, not because they are beyond my taste). So finally today I had the chance to watch the movie.  

Japan has an old and enduring culture of horror stories. When I first came across it I was not very keen to check it out. You see, my knowledge of horror stories comes from the recent set of horror movies that focus more on supernatural entities and gore.

And these laughable white lenses that the Zee team bought in bulk or received from the Ramsays.

While I enjoy a good story here and there, for the most part I stand at “from the time I discovered what monstrosities humans could commit, I stopped being scared of the monster under my bed.” But it is by sheer accident that I discovered the movie, Ugetsu, which has certainly piqued my interest in this genre. Onibaba is a film followed by that. Like Ugetsu, Onibaba is also a jidaigeki, meaning a period drama. While it is a period drama, this story is an analogy for the modern war, and especially the world wars which destroyed the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Onibaba, the movie is set in fourteenth century Kyoto, where wars between factions of samurais has led to a civil unrest. The story is centered on two peasant women who are pushed to manage on their own, as their son has left for a war. One of them is the older woman, and the other is her daughter-in-law. The film portrays their struggle for satisfying their most natural instincts. While hunger remains a constant struggle and no one hesitates to kill.

While hunger is not hardly met, sex becomes another struggle which for the younger woman is a matter of instinct, it is a matter of survival for the older woman. While there are few who could actively pursue the daughter during the wartime, the return of their dead son’s friend starts a challenge for the woman. She is forced to watch her daughter in law being drawn to the new man and fears that this would leave her alone.

THE SYMBOLISM

Onibaba

the character of Onibaba is drawn from old Japanese folklore, which means a “demon woman” or an evil hag. The story itself had emerged out of the Kyoto region. An Onibaba is a woman who feasts on the flesh of a young pregnant woman and is depicted as carrying a knife or spindle. There are many alternative stories. The Onibaba of the movie is inspired from a Buddhist fable. What I loved about Onibaba is how myth is easily woven into such a realistic story.

The wilderness

The wilderness is a very potent symbol used throughout the movie. A wilderness is a sign that the soil is fertile, not barren, however it also depicts that no one can be bothered to look after it. It is also a projection of the people living in it. It is possible the older woman is not that old at all but looks older due to the extreme poverty. Her own loneliness she can share only with a tree that is standing barren in the wilderness.

The Mask

The mask of the devil is yet another symbol that in a single scene conveys the real villain of the story, that is those samurais. The samurai is supposed to be a gallant and royal person, but underneath the mask is a rotten person. This “losing face” by losing the mask we realise has happened to quite a few people in the story’s setting.

Although the element of magic and myth is present in the movie, it does not take away from its stark reality. The woman becoming an Onibaba is due to necessity more than anything evil inside her.

Like me, if you have hated the horror genre, you should definitely check out Onibaba, definitely a classic fare.

A Reflection on the movie Osama by Siddiq Barmak

Even before I start I can tell you I will ramble on and digress but that is the only way I can write about this movie…

Afghanistan has been in the news for a long time now, but not in the most flattering light. But every now and then a book or a movie pops out that shows a different side of this country.

The Afghan Girl, Sharbat Gula, it means essence of the gardens.

Most of us were introduced to Afghanistan by the writer, Khalid Hosseini. Who knew this strategically placed country had such a rich history? Probably my ignorance in not knowing this. Odd because India’s connection with Afghanistan goes back to antiquity. It even gets featured in India’s epic, Mahabharata.  So it is odd that this country feels so foreign to us.

However, we do share other ways of kinship, the Afghanis love Bollywood (oh and by the way at least two superstars of Bollywood, Shahrukh Khan and Salman Khan, can trace their lineage back to the Pathans,) and we seem to enjoy whenever we spot a word that is common between Urdu and Pashto. (Urdu is a language that was formed in the Mughal capital of Delhi as a hybrid of Turkish, Persian and Hindi, and the languages of Afghanistan, Pashto and Dari, are a dialect of Persian.)

The Banjara tribes, mostly seen working as street vendors in big cities, are said to be Afghani in origin.

Coming back to Hosseini’s book, it got me hooked and I wanted to know more about the culture. And as the world’s attention and curiosity remained focussed on the region we realised there was more to discover.

And in 2003 came a movie called Osama and although the name Osama, was quite known it was not a very beloved name. So when a filmmaker decides to call his movie, Osama, it is hardly accidental. But as much as the name is internationally known, the emotions that the film explores are thoroughly for the sake of an internal dialogue.

Osama is a movie about the trials and tribulations of a girl who has to live as a boy to support her family during the reign of Taliban in Afghanistan.

This movie made by Afghani director, Siddik Barmak in 2003 was an act resilience in itself. While he was growing up Barmak lead a comfortable life. However, his interest in filmmaking soon got him in trouble in the conservative background of his country. He also joined the group to rebel against Soviet occupation öf their land. But as luck would have it he was offered a scholarship in filmmaking by the University of Moscow and he made the pragmatic choice to accept it. When he returned the enemies had changed they were now homebred. He returned in 2002 after the fall of Taliban. But still the situation remained unchanged and artistic freedom was far more than welcome. It was in such an atmosphere that Barmak decided to make his movie. While Barmak was persistent in getting the funds from international sources yet, to tell the story he wanted the actors to be from his country.

Siddiq Barmak’s Osama wins Best Foreign Language Film at the Golden Globes

We all know at least one person who has been through so much in life and they continue to go about their lives as if nothing had happened. We might feel like shaking them up and telling them how brave they have been and how much respect they deserve. Perhaps this is the feeling Barmak had when he made the movie. In an interview he said that the only way his people could see their struggles reflected is through an audio-visual medium because his people cannot read or write. And what a wonderful catharsis cinema can be! It is very clear that the movie is an attempt at introspection, an imploration, a dialogue within the community…

The girl who was chosen to play Osama was a girl, Marina Golbahari, Barmak found her begging outside a theatre (the theatre where he watched his first movie and worked as a projectionist). He was certain her own experience of being out there in those circumstances where women couldn’t get out of their houses alone with or without a veil and regardless of their age, would help her with the role. And it does!

Osama’s pigtails planted in a pot

A girl barely out of her childhood and without any understanding of womenhood observes in silence the continued tug of war of gender around her. Ultimately circumstances force her to live as a boy. One would think that being dressed as a boy would liberate this girl at least in such a society. But she never for a moment assumes the role. She keeps her cut off pigtails planted in a pot it becomes a symbol of her womenhood growing despite all acts of camouflage.

What happens perhaps in utter adversity is that people become impervious as can be seen happening with her mother who has to let her daughter search ways to earn her livelihood. She also remains absent when her daughter is forced to take shelter in a religious school called a madrassa and the person whom she entrusted her daughter leaves the country. Osama’s fate runs through various ups and downs. There is a semblance of a friendship with a boy, Espandi, but even that doesn’t entirely grow into anything. We expect an act of rebel from her side but this unfolding should be watched to be fully appreciated.

We talk about the East-West divide, yet the East is so fragmented and varied that there cannot be a single narrative that encompasses all. Of course the feelings of being trapped, shamed or abused are universal but the voices in which they will be told will be different. The voice of Osama is a pessimistic one. Despite all elements of life put together like friendship or mutual human compassion, there is a despair and this is reflected in its ending. Did Barmak try to put elements of positivity? Yes, but they are dispersed and shortlived in this gritty, realistic tale.